


We Move Together as One

by PunkHazard



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Merpeople AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-06
Updated: 2018-06-09
Packaged: 2018-09-22 08:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,455
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9595664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PunkHazard/pseuds/PunkHazard
Summary: Lúcio picks a shimmery, dark green scale off his scalp, twice as large as any of his own. Dozens more flutter down.





	1. Chapter 1

A ton of things require Lúcio's attention, but for the moment he ignores the insistent nibbling at his dorsal fin in favor of the blue lobster that had holed up in one particular fish couple's nest. There's plenty of real estate on the reef; maybe not in such a calm spot with just the right ratio of sun to shade, but lots of livable space for a lobster. While he contemplates how to negotiate with a greedy crustacean, something lands on his head and a shadow passes over.

Lúcio picks a shimmery, dark green scale off his scalp, twice as large as any of his own. Dozens more flutter down. 

He looks up, the tug on his fin abruptly stopped and the lobster retreating deeper into its nest. The rest of the fish in his lagoon have also disappeared, usual bustle of everyday life momentarily halted in the face of this intruder. Fighting his first urge to also find a hole to duck into, Lúcio kicks upward instead, skimming over the top of his reef for a better look. 

A long, serpentine shape floats near the surface, at its widest point even broader than Lúcio's shoulders. The loops coil haphazardly over themselves, and Lúcio dives forward to inspect whatever it is they're protecting at the center, gently pushing aside the trunk of the body to reveal a torso. Lúcio's first thought is, _He's huge_. His second: _He's dead_.

The intruder's arms are bright pink, skin burned and rolled back where it's peeled away. His gills are shredded, only a few wispy filaments left on his neck and ribs still fluttering softly as water passes through; entire chunks are missing from his tail. Whatever's left of the skin on his shoulders and collar is raised in boils and welts, his ears in tatters. If he's dead it's recent-- no bloating, only a faint smell of decay and necrcosis.

Lúcio's seen and had to dispose of plenty of dead things. Managing a reef isn't easy, and his life is long compared to the ones under his care. Still, he's never seen a dead guardian (let alone a living one at this size) and had to handle the aftermath of it. Moving closer, he peers at his face, startling slightly when the eyes open a sliver. Then they open all the way, slow and pained.

"Oh," says Lúcio, "geez. You're alive."

He darts away, ducks under his reef and raps a few times on a shell nestled in the sand. It tilts, Hana's head poking out. She smiles at him, sunny and wide. "What's going on?"

"I gotta get Mercy." Lúcio points up, waiting for Hana to notice the massive shape casting a shadow over his lagoon. "He's hurt pretty bad."

It takes a second but her eyes widen, four of her legs digging into the sand. "You sure know how to find trouble, Lúcio."

He flashes her a wry smile, patting her shell. "Can you keep an eye on him till I'm back?"

"Yeah, I've got you."

* * *

He's some sort of deep-sea creature.

That's the message Mercy passes along, anyway, telling Lúcio that she's set him up in a pressure regulated tank in her research center only a few miles away from his reef. Ironically, it's humans that have made the biggest strides in treatment for their kind-- guardians are long-lived and powerful, but submit to nature. Humans, by contrast, try to resist everything the natural world can throw at them. Lúcio supposes that in this case, the stranger's lucky for it.

Mercy also tells him that he's been unresponsive ever since she hooked him up to a few life support systems-- some to help breathe, some to keep his body functioning through the burns and the shock. She lets Lúcio visit though, allowing him to hover outside the glass tank under the facility, the only one large enough to contain him. Lúcio swims the half-hour or so it takes to reach her barge from his reef only once every few days, and by his third visit the stranger's looking better-- his gills have been augmented with artificial breathers, parts of his tail encased in structures to concentrate her nanomachines' attention. The burns are raw and angry, loose skin sloughed off or removed and dead flesh carefully excised. 

Lúcio's inspecting his face when he opens his eyes again, serenely staring through the glass at Lúcio's face.

"Hey," says Lúcio, pressing one hand to the tank. "I'm Lúcio."

A voice echoes in his mind, flat and calm. _Genji_.

That's a trick some really ancient guardians know, ones that spend plenty of time around others. Lúcio's only got his reef and Hana-- they haven't really found the need for telepathic communication and no one to teach it to them just for fun, isolated as they are. "Nice to meet you," he says.

Genji closes his eyes again, his tail shifting slowly, painfully, to curl behind his shoulders and wrap around him. _Tell your human friend to put me back in the ocean._

"You won't survive like this," Lúcio says.

 _I know_.

* * *

He never does tell Mercy what Genji'd asked. She wouldn't agree, anyway, and Genji doesn't make the request again. His tail atrophies in three weeks, the machinery on his gills replaced with a more permanent apparatus, though Mercy says they can be removed if Genji ever regenerates. She's been dialing back the sedatives in his tank, the only way he can sleep through the pain.

She also asks Lúcio to come by more often, but after the first time Genji deigned to acknowledge his presence he's taken to ignoring Lúcio completely, curling into a tight ball at the bottom of his tank whenever they try to speak with him. 

"You need to let him out," Lúcio finally tells her, motioning at the lump of dragon huddling in a corner of his tank, "he can't live like this." What's visible of his tail, once a lustrous, shimmering green, has dulled. The powerful muscles that had padded it are nearly all gone from lack of movement, his skeleton almost visible beneath artificial scales. Mercy had augmented nearly his entire tail, replacing loose and damaged scaling with a cybernetic scaffolding to sustain its shape while his shredded internal organs recover. 

"He cannot live outside, either," she counters. 

"He knows. And it's gotta be his decision, doc." Lúcio lifts himself half out of the water, hands braced on the edge of the waterway. "You can't force anyone to live."

Mercy frowns. From below, Genji's head peeks out of the coils of his body, tattered ears twitching forward. His jaw's been popped back into place, stabilized with a bracer that also augments the gills on his neck. He's still moving sluggishly, arms held close to his chest to avoid bumping his burns, but Lúcio's prety sure that he's aware of every last thing around him. He catches Genji's eyes peering at him from between the loops of his tail sometimes, even when the guy's supposedly still ignoring everyone.

"He's been eyeing the walls for days now, Mercy." Sensing her hesitation, Lúcio pushes away from the edge of the barge and floats on his back, rapping a few times on the tank's cover just below. "He's either gonna break through or die trying, and I think I know which one he'd prefer."

She relents, sighing dejectly as she kneels and glances over the edge of her platform. For all her insistence on keeping him alive, once decided she moves quickly. "Genji," she says, smiling slightly as he turns his head toward her voice, "it will take an hour to equalize pressure between this tank and the ocean outside without damage to your body, and then you will be free to go. Is that alright with you?"

He nods.

"You are welcome back anytime to continue treatment," she adds. That gets the faintest impression of a smile, the tip of one fang visible when the corner of his mouth twitches up.

Mercy sits at her control panel. While the equalizer begins to work she sighs, burying her face in her hands. Genji's a good patient, docile and cooperative; but more than that, he's a fascinating specimen. She might have hoped that if she couldn't save him despite her best efforts, he might at least agree to let her experiment on his body. 

Lúcio ducks back underwater.

* * *

When Mercy removes the cover, Genji stays still. She waits for nearly ten minutes before she leaves to make her rounds, which is when Lúcio dives into the tank and settles at the bottom. "Hey," he says quietly, keeping his distance in case Genji decides to lash out, "what's wrong?"

Genji doesn't answer for a solid minute, practically hiding himself in the loops of his tail. When Lúcio gives no indication that he'll leave anytime soon, the coils loosen enough to reveal a sliver of his face. The first time Lúcio hears Genji's voice it's a hoarse, anguished whisper: "I don't think I can make it out."

Forget breaking out, he can barely move. Even in the stillest waters, the inhabitants of the ocean are constantly adjusting to the ocean's current and working their tails. Lúcio's heard that physical bodies tie into a guardian's state of mind as well, and though he'd occasionally noticed his scales growing duller with his mood, he's never actually tested it. With how quickly Genji's muscles had deteriorated and his massive size, it's no wonder that he can't move properly. "No worries," says Lúcio, trying to keep his tone light, pointedly downplaying how horrifying the situation is turning out to be, "I'll pull you up."

Genji doesn't reply for another awkward beat, pride finally caving against his desire to be out of the tank as his tail unfurls. His arms are still healing, almost the entirety of them a mess of open sores, so Lúcio puts his hands on Genji's waist and kicks up, pulling him along. The weeks Genji spent unmoving have taken their toll, his bones audibly cracking as his spine unbends and he weakly lashes his tail to add on to the momentum Lúcio's provided. 

"So," Lúcio says once they've made it out, gently holding Genji in place against the current while the other guardian catches his breath, "you wanna see my reef?"

Eyeing the hands at his waist, Genji sighs in resignation before regarding Lúcio. "Your reef?" he asks, visibly putting on an expression of polite interest.

"It's near here, it's nice." Suddenly acutely aware of how close they are, Lúcio tears his eyes away from the body next to him, focusing on Genji's face. "Water's calm. You can stay there until you feel up to going somewhere else."

Genji lets the silence stand for a few seconds, his expression carefully neutral. "If I declined?"

Lúcio stares at him.

"Sorry," Genji sighs, pulling away from Lúcio. He stays suspended in the water, tail undulating slowly against the current. "I... don't know where to go from here."

"Might as well come with me then, right?"

Turning that over in his mind, Genji gives him a wary look, as if still trying to decide whether or not to trust Lúcio. "A reef?"

"Uhm, a lagoon." He makes a circle with his hands, shutting one eye and looking through the gap at Genji. "It gets pretty deep, but I think you'll be fine."

Genji can't very well go home, and despite the comfort of the pressure-controlled tank, the thought of being able to feel the current shifting and moving around his body again sets him at ease. "Yes," he says after a moment, "I'll go with you."

* * *

Lúcio makes surprisingly good time back to his reef, even dragging another massive guardian with him. It probably doesn't hurt that each lash of Genji's tail, as slow and pained as it is, still pushes them forward much faster than Lúcio can manage on his own. Genji settles pensively in the shallows while Lúcio greets Hana and makes his rounds. He flits around his lagoon, followed by a school of assorted fish. After visiting a few nests, listening intently to the occupants of each one, Lúcio finally swims back to Genji, hovering over his head.

"So where are you from?" he asks.

Genji reclines on his own tail, looking exhausted as it coils around him. "Much deeper," he answers, eyes closing.

"You're a guardian, right?" Lúcio drifts closer, grinning when Genji opens one eye, pupil slit narrowing as it readjusts to the light. "Where's your partner?"

"At home," says Genji, confirming Lúcio's guess. Guardians almost always come in pairs-- one to represent a place, and the other to safeguard its ecology. Lúcio's lagoon, Hana's fish; their roles aren't as defined as many others, however, small as the reef is. "My brother controls the weather, and I maintain the currents."

Lúcio kicks, twisting his body in an idle backflip. "The weather and currents of what?"

The tip of Genji's tail had ended up somewhere near Lúcio's dorsal fin, and it twitches to indicate everything around them. Lúcio turns, regarding the graceful arc Genji's tail cuts through the water before he whips his head back around at the dragon's reply: "The oceans."

"You're the guardians of _the oceans_? Plural?"

"We are mostly active in the Pacific, but effective in all of them."

Propriety momentarily out the window, Lúcio darts in close, his face inches away from Genji's. "How'd that happen to a guardian of the ocean?" he asks, gesturing vaguely at the burns on Genji's body. "You guys are the most powerful things in this place."

Genji's expression closes off, though he also looks too tired to shrink away or push Lúcio back. "I will tell you some other time," he murmurs, sinking lower, the trunk of his tail rising to nearly cover his torso. 

Lúcio draws back, looking sheepish. "Oh, right, you need rest." Offering a quick smile, he motions with one arm behind him, letting the current pull him out of Genji's line of sight to reveal the lagoon on its own, the sun rippling across the surface of clear blue water, tropical fish of every size and color swarming in the light. The center of the reef drops into deeper waters, a narrow crevasse disappearing into inky blue-black. "Yeah, I'll uh, I'll be around. Make yourself at home?"

"Thank you for having me," Genji answers politely, then yawns. His tongue, long and forked, flicks momentarily out.

"Hey," says Lúcio, watching the tip of one fang gleam, the other one broken off midway, "it's my pleasure."

* * *

Genji sleeps the rest of the day and through the following night, lying so still and quiet that Lúcio forgets he's there, occasionally startling when he catches a glimpse of the dragon's massive shape out of the corner of his eye. It's night again by the time Genji stirs, his massive bulk churning the water just as Lúcio wakes from a brief nap before starting his nighttime rounds. 

Hanging back, Lúcio circles around to try and catch a glimpse of Genji's face, only flashes of it visible behind the flailing trunk of his body. He does a nervous backflip, hands flexing at his sides before he dives forward. 

Lúcio doesn't make it far before Genji's tail clocks him over the head, then smacks into a small outcropping of the reef, knocking it loose. When the flurry of movement slows briefly, Lúcio darts in, bumping into an uninjured section of Genji's torso to slow his own momentum. The impact shakes Genji awake, his eyes snapping open. His thrashing stops, though Genji doesn't respond at all to Lúcio's voice. 

"Genji," Lúcio says, reaching for his face but remembering the burns across his cheeks before setting his hands over Genji's ribs, holding him still. "Genji, you gotta wake up."

It takes a second of Lúcio being acutely aware of how big Genji is and how much damage he could potentially do before the dragon blinks-- once, twice, an expression of fear on his face completely unlike the dismissal and boredom he'd displayed for weeks on end. Genji's eyes dart around, first taking in Lúcio before they regard his own tail, the reef, one of the braver, more curious parrotfish that'd come out to spectate. "Lúcio," he gasps. "Where--"

"You're okay, Genji. You're at my reef."

"Your reef," he repeats, voice distant.

"Yeah, it's safe here." Lúcio waits for Genji to orient himself, the tension in his body seeping away as Lúcio releases him. "But you can't kick around like that. Coral's pretty fragile, alright? That chunk you knocked off took like, twenty years to form."

Shaking his head, Genji ducks around Lúcio to inspect the part of the reef he'd broken. "I'm sorry," he says quiety, scooping the fragment off the sand and gingerly fitting it back in place, "let me fix it."

"It's coral, it'll fix itself eventually."

Genji says nothing, focusing for a solid minute while Lúcio looks on. When he lets go, the fragment stays in place, no seam visible. "If you accelerate its growth," says Genji at the confused, incredulous look Lúcio levels in his direction, "new coral will patch the break."

"Isn't that bad for it?"

"So long as you do not do it often, they will be fine." Sighing, Genji brushes a bright green fringe of hair back from his forehead, slowly in consideration for the still-healing burns on his hands. "And I will find a better place to sleep."

Lúcio sidles in next to Genji to inspect the reef. Finding nothing wrong with it, or even any sign of it having been broken, he grins. "I usually just let it grow back on its own."

"That's an option, too." Genji wrinkles his nose, privately dismayed at how such a small task tired him out when at his prime he could create waves strong enough to level a city without breaking a sweat. The expression fades to one of cool resignation as he makes room for Lúcio and watches the smaller guardian gently tap the coral to test its resiliency. "If the reef is safe," Genji tells him, "there will be time for it to recover without intervention."

"Aw," says Lúcio, spinning in place several times when a cheeky butterflyfish nibbles on his side fin, "wish I'd known that sooner." The fish has some issue regarding a lobster that urgently needs tending to, so Lúcio flashes Genji a wry smile and turns to go. 

By the time he's stopped an altercation, handled several more nesting disputes and freed an unfortunate goby from the mouth of a giant oyster, Genji's retreated to a sparse corner of the reef, closer to a cluster of rock formations than any coral fixtures. He's reclined on his own tail, draped bonelessly across the coils. Moonlight so close to the surface penetrates to the sandy floor, illuminating Genji's sleek, imposing figure.

As he gets closer Lúcio notices that Genji's awake. "Your reef is beautiful," he says as Lúcio rejoins him, voice low and soft. "You've done well here."

Lúcio regards the familiar landscape, every corner of it teeming with life and activity. He was born when his lagoon first formed, land falling away from an established reef. Hana appeared when the rest of the fish did, drawn to the calm and safety as coral grew. He knows each dip and valley, where strong currents sweep through the gaps, which nests are occupied, which eggs are close to hatching, the position of each anemone-- everyday life can be dull when it comes to managing a reef, but the centuries of effort he'd sunk into the place are evident. Sneaking a look at Genji's face, the dragon's eyes sleepily narrowed, Lúcio grins at his calm expression. "Thanks," he answers. "Glad you like it."

* * *

Late the next morning, when Lúcio finally wakes up and wanders out of the little nook he sleeps in, Genji's nowhere in sight. Despite the relative youth of his reef compared to some of the more ancient hosts, its size offers plenty of space for its inhabitants and even occasional visitors. It's not, however, big enough to allow a dragon-sized guardian to disappear entirely, which Genji has somehow managed to do. 

Lúcio makes a quick round before he sighs, wondering briefly if Genji'd caught a current and let it sweep him out, probably back to whatever deep-sea trench he lives in. The last place he checks is Hana's cavern under the reef, startling slightly when he turns up her shell and comes up empty, revealing only the massive tunnel she'd dug her way out of when she'd arrived. "Hey," he calls down the hole, "Hana! You there?"

"Yeah!" her voice echoes back, "Come in!

"Genji's not down there, is he?"

"Uh, actually, he is!"

"Seriously?" Lúcio mutters to himself, descending head-first into the tunnel, squinting as light from the surface dwindles through a narrow patch and the passage widens out into a bright, spacious cavern. It's several times the size it was since the last time Hana wanted to show him something in it, Genji slowly making his way through the maze of openings and archways while Hana watches proudly by the entrance. She grins at Lúcio when he finally joins her, elbowing him in the ribs. 

"See? Even the _ocean guardian_ likes it."

"Just because you spend all day digging your base instead of working on the reef," Lúcio begins, but he cuts off when Genji turns, waving at him from the other end of Hana's grotto. She'd punched gaps into the ceiling at the far end, where another hole leads to open ocean. While Genji continues his exploration, weaving in and out of the dappled light filtering through, Lúcio crosses his arms over his chest and falls silent, tracking his movement. 

"He's looking better," Hana observes. "You said he could barely move when he first got here, right?"

In the two days since Genji arrived at the reef, the burns on his arms and face have developed a healthy new layer of skin, though it's rougher and darker than it had been and he still moves carefully. His tail has started to fill out again, bones a faint impression beneath his scales. The scars stripe across his features but considering the weeks he'd spent showing almost no sign of recovery after Mercy stabilized him, Lúcio takes it as a good sign. Being out of that tank must be doing something for him.

"Yeah," he says, kicking forward to join Genji as Hana scuttles out of her hideout and back into her shell. Genji's dropped deeper, eyes on something at the floor of the cave. As Lúcio draws closer, he scoops up whatever he'd been looking at, tilts his head back and pops it into his mouth.

Lúcio pulls up, squinting at the sheepish look Genji gives him. "Did you just swallow that rock," he says, more observation than question.

Genji holds up his hand and curls his fingers as if around an invisible ball, then hefts the imaginary object. "My pearl was shattered," he says, expression open and honest. "They take centuries to make, and the base has to be right."

Judging by the optimistic expression on his face, he must've found his base. Lúcio lets the current push him closer and he pokes lightly at Genji's belly, smiling when the dragon snorts and pulls back. "A pearl?" Lúcio repeats. "Are you an oyster?"

"My kind can create pearls as a reservoir of power. Over time, we funnel excess energy into it, and can use that store at will."

"How big was yours?"

Genji closes one eye, holding his hand up near Lúcio's cheek. "About the size of your head," he answers, sounding amused. "They form in our stomachs, and are hidden there until we spit them out. They cannot be used normally before they are ah, properly expelled."

Briefly wondering if this might be common knowledge to other less isoated guardians, Lúcio draws a circle in the water in front of Genji's face and pushes aside his hesitation, deciding that if Genji found him annoying he'd have left already. "How'd you get it out?" he probes, insatiably curious about his new guest. "Like an egg?"

"I can unhinge my jaw." Genji answers Lúcio's sudden grin with a smile of his own. "Personally," he says, voice dropping to a hiss, "I have never had to get one out another way but I have heard some ambitious dragons, ah... do."

Wrinkling his nose, Lúcio laughs, the sound tinged with sympathetic pain. "No way!"

"I _know_. Can you imagine?"

"I don't think I want to," Lúcio retorts, shaking his head. When he looks at Genji again he pulls back, eyes following the larger guardian's gaze to the exit into open ocean. "You know," he says, "I thought you'd left."

Genji glances at him again, a thoughtful expression on his face. "I would not leave without saying goodbye to the one who saved my life," he says firmly. "Besides, the current is too strong for me as I am."

"When you're feeling better," Lúcio tells him, somewhat encouraged, "Mercy says she can remove all the braces and augmentations for you. In case you're still growing."

"I think my body has already fused to them." Shaking his head, Genji sighs, "That won't be possible."

"Aw, no... your beautiful tail."

Going silent, his tail discreetly curling up to shield him, Genji snags one of the long whisker-y fins that'd also been reconstructed courtesy of Dr. Ziegler. "I know," he says softly. "I was proud of it."

"Hey, I don't mean--"

"I know what you meant," Genji interrupts, his head ducking, "Lúcio, and I appreciate the thought. I reached my full size a long time ago, so I don't think I will experience complications with these."


	2. Chapter 2

Genji leaves Lúcio plenty of time to himself, spending many hours asleep in Hana's cave, curled tightly in his usual ball. There's a possibility that larger guardians simply sleep like that, so Lúcio doesn't question it, unsure if he'd even be open to that sort of prodding. Lúcio himself spends his time on smaller projects when the reef doesn't need his immediate attention, the most recent of them being a large conch shell he's working into an ocarina. 

Genji manages to feign disinterest for all of two minutes after waking up before he sidles over to Lúcio, settling quietly by his elbow to watch the smaller guardian drill holes into the shell with a metal pick he'd picked up by Mercy's lab.

"You play?" Genji asks as Lúcio shifts his fingers over the holes, testing their distance and the fit of the instrument in his hands. It's the first time he's spoken all day, having been subdued and tired lately-- probably a result of beginning to remake his pearl in earnest. 

"It's been a while," answers Lúcio, "my last one went missing when a trawler came too close, and these take time to make."

Genji regards the shell, nostrils flaring slightly at the small pulse of energy throbbing in its core, a signature identical to that of Lúcio's reef. "Is it finished?"

"Almost." Lúcio points up, toward the surface. "Wanna help me test it?"

"Sure."

"C'mon." In a flash of green, Lúcio's darting toward a cluster of rocks, hand settling on the topmost, ready to haul himself out of the water. "We have to be up here."

Genji swims in a long, slow circle around the formation, frowning slightly when he loops back around to Lúcio. "I can stick my head out," he offers, tiredly regarding the rocks.

"How long can you tread at the surface?"

"I don't think there is enough room for me."

"Oh." Lúcio makes his own round, looking mildly irritated that his heretofore trustworthy pile of rocks has decided to betray him in this way, by being too small for his guest. "I know a better place," he says decisively, kicking away from Genji toward shallower waters. Genji follows at his usual sleepy pace, waving Lúcio on whenever he looks over his shoulder. 

They settle on a wide, flat rock. Most of it is still submerged but just barely, and Lúcio swings himself up to the highest outcropping while Genji arranges himself on the plateau. He has to curl his tail back on itself several times, but he fits, and Lúcio flashes him a satisfied grin. "This works," Genji tells him, completely unnecessarily, as he settles in.

"I like to take naps up here too," says Lúcio, trying to shake water out of his instrument now that he's above the surface, "it's nice in the sun."

"I know what you mean."

Lúcio gives his ocarina a watery toot, dejectedly striking it against the heel of his palm to dislodge whatever drops have stayed in the mouthpiece. "Sunbathing's something you guys do too?" he asks, just to fill the silence. "You'd be, what, a mile underwater?"

"We have vents at the bottom of the trench." Genji leans back against his tail, arms crossing over his chest. "It's nice to sleep somewhere warm."

That gives Lúcio pause. He spins his pick over his thumb before pointing the handle toward Genji. "Correct me if I'm wrong but, isn't that boiling water?"

"I don't sleep on _top_ of them."

"But you could?"

"Some of them are not hot enough to burn, but most are several times boiling temperature." Genji smiles when Lúcio slides off his rock and into the nest Genji had made with his body, lightly patting the artificial scales as his weight settles on top. "We keep our distance regardless."

"Oh."

"They just heat the castle," Genji says, tip of his tail lightly flicking Lúcio's ear. 

"The _castle_ ," Lúcio repeats incredulously, swatting him away.

"What were you going to play?" Genji asks, quickly shifting the conversation away from himself. "Can you only use that above water?"

"It works under, but only after it's finished." Setting the conch in his lap, Lúcio reaches behind his head and sweeps his hair into a high ponytail, using one thick strand to hold the other locs in place. "I'm just fine-tuning it now."

Genji makes a sound to show that he'd heard, head canting to the side as Lúcio blows on the ocarina and sends up a clear, whistling note. He keeps going, carefully trying each configuration before he seems satisfied, sneaking a look at Genji's face as he starts on an actual tune. It's not familiar to Genji, composed on the fly, but listening to the sweet, rising melody sets him instantly at ease, able to ignore even the startlingly powerful surge of energy from the smaller guardian that swells with his music. That Lúcio's managed to keep his reef pristine for so long is in no small part due to its isolation, but Genji notes privately that his protective aura isn't to be underestimated.

They stay on the rocks for hours, Genji basking in the sun while Lúcio experiments with his ocarina. Genji falls asleep halfway through a reedy rendition of an old lullaby (one that he's not sure where Lúcio could ever have heard, but he doesn't ask for fear of interrupting the song), and by the time he wakes up it's nearly night. Lúcio's no longer playing his songs, but the warm, small weight on Genji's body is a clear enough indicator that he's still there, and when Genji cracks his eyes open he doesn't bother fighting back a smile. 

Lúcio breathes slowly, his chest rising and falling in gentle time to the lapping of waves against the flat rock he'd harangued Genji into joining him on. He's also decided to drape over the coils of Genji's tail, tip of his own fin twitching occasionally as he dreams. A thick lock of hair has fallen across his nose, its shaft tickling his cheek. Lúcio's brows furrow, his nose wrinkling at the sensation.

Genji picks the strand off Lúcio's face, shifting it gingerly back into place before shaking him awake. "Lúcio," he murmurs quietly, to keep from startling him, "I think you will be needed at your reef."

He resists opening his eyes for a few long seconds before cracking one, immediately shutting it again to yawn. "Did we spend the whole day here?" Lúcio asks, turning to lie on his stomach as Genji's tail shifts below him. 

"Yes."

"I mean," Lúcio drawls, folding his arms under his chin, "the fish can handle themselves for a couple more hours."

* * *

It'll be another week before Genji seems more or less recovered: his tail filled back out, what remains of his scales slowly regaining its shine, skin scarred over. He cuts quickly and easily through the water, weaving effortlessly through the gaps in coral now that he's familiar with the place. He lets Hana hitch rides on his back, his size and regained strength easily accommodating her shell. The weather has been calm, waters gentle since he arrived even when stormclouds are visible on the horizon all around Lúcio's reef.

Lúcio doesn't question it too much, pointedly holding back from asking him when he might leave in case he takes it as a hint that he's overstayed his welcome. For an ancient guardian Genji's painfully courteous, volunteering every day to make Lúcio's rounds with him and pick up the scraps of trash that occasionally float by.

"They come to you," he says, delighted at the prospect of watching Lúcio settle yet another routine nesting dispute, "for everything."

Rearranging the cluster of rocks that separates a pair of butterflyfish nests, he snorts as they bump his hand in gratitude and summarily nudge him away. "All I'm good for is my opposable thumbs," Lúcio sighs, swimming toward the edge of the reef to inspect a gap where the current has been pulling young fish out of their nurseries, usually necessitating a rescue from either a parent or Lúcio himself. "And stuff like this, I guess. Think I can just block this one off?"

Genji leans in, then glances around the reef, eyes narrowing as he picks out the flows and eddies of water. "You can wedge a rock inside or lean something against the outside to disrupt the current," he says after a few seconds, "but blocking it entirely will only make the other openings more dangerous."

"Thought so," says Lúcio, sticking his hand through the opening and gingerly feeling for its edges. "Figured it'd be something like that." 

"Why bother asking?" Genji shoots back, no bite in his voice. His questions and observations are always specific, somehow reflecting an intimate understanding of the ocean with no idea how each of the individual ecosystems in it function. He doesn't even seem to have known any guardians who _aren't_ some sort of ancient metaphysical concept, considering how little he understands of Lúcio's limits.

"'Cause otherwise," Lúcio explains, "I'd have to test it myself."

"Ah."

He grins as he ducks to the floor of the lagoon, sifting through the sand until he turns up several large shells. "Dragon senses, huh?"

"They are convenient."

"I'll bet."

Genji watches in silence as Lúcio rigs the shells to muddle the current through the opening, slowing and redirecting it. It forms small eddies within the curves of the shells, enough disruption to allow a young fish to escape the current if it wished. The process takes him a few minutes and several discarded shells, an expression of intense concentration on his face before he backs off. 

"How's that look?" he asks, arms akimbo. 

The question sounds rhetorical to Genji, who makes a show of regarding the finished product anyway. "Structurally sound," he answers, "and very effective."

Lúcio turns a grin on him, exasperated but fond. "Says the guy who literally controls the ocean currents."

"I would have simply changed the current outside to lessen force at this section," Genji agrees. "But using shells would never have occurred to me."

Lúcio nods. "Smalltime guardians," he says, "have to make do with what we have."

* * *

In the midst of sorting through coral seedlings to plant, Lúcio's nearly bowled over by a wave of sleepy confusion and distress from the far corner of his reef. It can't be anyone but Genji, Hana definitely not strong enough to produce that kind of energy. Nearby, she pokes her head out of her shell and turns an alarmed look on Lúcio.

"I'll go check on him," Lúcio sighs, kicking down to Hana and reluctantly handing her the armful of seedlings. He watches her scuttle over to a bleached section of the reef to carefully set a brain coral baby in place, then turns to make his way to Genji.

The dragon has clearly just woken up, his hair still flattened on one side against his temple despite the current billowing around it, most of his tail still curled around him. A lobster-- The Lobster-- thrashes in his hand, held carefully away from anything its pincers can reach. Genji gives Lúcio a look. "Why is it doing this?"

"Sorry," Lúcio answers, unable to suppress a laugh, "that guy doesn't like strangers. Guess he finally figured out you were around."

Genji gives it a distasteful look, holding it higher to inspect it more closely. "Does this lobster," he says, "know that I can swallow it whole?" Just to emphasize the point, he bares his fangs at it, then sets it down.

"You wouldn't," Lúcio retorts, ushering the lobster back toward the center of the lagoon. It skitters away, returning to its nest and retreating into it with an annoyed kick of sand. "You're not rude enough to eat my lobsters."

" _It_ doesn't know that," Genji snarls.

Lúcio pauses at that, regarding him with an impassive, calculating look. "You're crabby today," he observes, adding a pointed raise of his brows.

Falling back, Genji drapes himself over his tail, shading his eyes from the sun. "Hnn. My apologies." 

It's been a while since Genji has looked so withdrawn, and Lúcio considers letting him deal with it on his own, as he clearly wants to. Still, he can't resist drifting closer, one hand settling on his shoulder and squeezing lightly. "What's wrong?"

"My head hurts," Genji mumbles. "It started yesterday, but I ignored it. It's worse this morning."

Lúcio regards him for a long moment, eyeing the way Genji pulls into the shelter of his own tail as it wraps around him. He was deathly pale when he first arrived, no doubt a result of living in the deepest ocean trench in the Pacific and being mauled, but after a few weeks in the lagoon he had tanned considerably. Whatever healthy glow he'd developed is scarce now, his skin ashen with pain. "Hey," he says as the dragon backs out of his reach altogether, "could it be the pressure?"

The reply is despondent, but not a complete rejection of Lúcio's hypothesis: "I have been in the shallows for longer than this without a problem."

"Yeah," Lúcio says, gently wedging his hand between two coils of Genji's tail and moving them apart to peek at his face, "but you always had your pearl before, didn't you?"

Genji says nothing, his expression perturbed.

"Let's see if Mercy can repressurize you. It can't hurt."

* * *

Lúcio floats outside Genji's tank, watching the dragon make his agitated rounds inside it. Mercy had been ecstatic to see them turn up at her barge, Genji alive and well. She'd set up the tank for him, crouched by the water as it refilled. He's a markedly different patient this time around, chatty despite the headache and happy to banter with the doctor until she'd given him the go-ahead.

Now that Ziegler's returned to work, he seems more disturbed than anything, keen eyes scanning every corner of the tank. 

Lúcio knocks on the glass, grinning sympathetically as Genji draws close. "You okay in there?" he asks. "Head feeling better?"

"It is," Genji answers, his voice despondent despite the relatively good news. "I think my pearl will be enough to prevent this in the future."

"What's got you so down, big guy?"

Genji kicks away from the glass, taking his time to circle the entire perimeter of the tank before he comes to a stop in front of Lúcio again. "Did you know," he says thoughtfully, "there is a gyre in the Pacific Ocean that is full of trash? And several others throughout the oceans."

Lúcio's had this conversation with Mercy several times, relying on the doctor to relay global news, but how this relates to Genji's mood, he's still unsure. "I've heard of 'em," he offers.

"That was the only way we could contain it all," Genji murmurs, "but even that method poisons and injures anything that swims in or near it." 

"Oh."

"Humans caused it."

"I know."

Genji shakes his head, agitatedly running his fingers through his hair. _My brother wanted to level their coastal cities,_ he explains, relying on telepathy to obscure that fact, in case their conversation were to be recorded. He drags his palm down his face before turning a plaintive look on Lúcio. _All of them. Sink every ship in the oceans, destroy anything that pumps their garbage into our homes._

That gives Lúcio pause, but he considers the rush of satisfaction the thought gives him, and pushes it away. "I can understand."

"He doesn't know humans like I do, Lúcio." Genji lowers himself to the bottom of the tank, refusing to meet Lúcio's eyes. "They would resist, and retaliate. The cost would be too high."

"So what's the solution?" Lúcio challenges, exhaling, allowing the loss of bouyancy to take him to Genji's depth. "Just let them keep doing what they want? Wait for other humans to put a stop to it? You know that's not gonna work, Genji."

"We will outlast humanity," Genji says matter-of-factly. "The oceans will have to change, but they will always exist."

Lúcio laughs, an empty sound. " _You'll_ outlast them," he says, meeting Genji's look with a hard stare of his own. "Your vents and trenches are gonna be fine, the ocean will always exist, but the rest of us are gonna die. Parts of my reef aren't even gonna last the decade."

Genji's circle of guardians had extended to the Air, the Sky-- Clouds, Mountains and Fire. He'd rarely had opportunity to interact with each individual ecosystem within the ocean, and even less reason to truly resent the humans he insisted on spending so much time with. But now, the very idea of losing Lúcio to the carelessness of humanity is nearly unbearable. His brows furrow. "What are you proposing?"

"I wouldn't demolish their cities," Lúcio muses, "not that I could, but there has to be a way to live in peace with them. I just don't depend on the humans to fix it."

"They are the cause of it. They're the only ones who can fix it." Something about Mercy's facility must have triggered this particular mood; Genji crosses his arms over his chest, regarding the glass between him and Lúcio. "We can protect ourselves until they decide to change course or destroy themselves."

"Is that the only way?"

"I don't know. I only knew that attacking them would speed our own death." Genji uncrosses his arms, scratches the back of his neck. "My brother was preparing to move," he says, finally extending his arms to show Lúcio the scars still evident on his skin, "so we fought and he left me like this. I... do not want our friendship to end like that, Lúcio."

The revelation that Genji's partner guardian-- his _brother_ \-- had been the one to leave him in that state takes a few long seconds to truly register in Lúcio's mind, and he frowns. "You'd never do that to me."

"I meant on such a topic," Genji amends with a sheepish smile, "but that is also true." 

Lúcio flashes him a smile in return, glad for the lightening mood. "I don't disagree with you, Genji." Still, he looks up, regarding the bottom of Mercy's barge. "It just sucks to feel helpless all the time."

* * *

Genji's reluctance to return home-- and his insistence on helping Lúcio maintain his reef-- had become very clear to Lúcio after learning the circumstances that had led him to the lagoon. He doesn't bother questioning it further, and if he were being honest, Lúcio would miss the dragon when he finally felt well enough to leave. Up until this point, the only company he and Hana really had were each other and the fish. Much as he loved and appreciated his partner guardian, they had spent so many decades together that they had very little left to talk about.

Still, their weekly trips to maintain the outskirts of the reef are a treat for both guardians, and with Genji accompanying them Hana stays happily entertained. The journey there is significantly more exciting than it usually is, Hana hitching a ride on Genji's tail instead of hauling her shell along. Upon arrival, Hana hunkers down by a cluster of nests to hold court with the fish who demand her attention while Lúcio and Genji make their rounds, collecting garbage to dispose of as they come across it. 

Genji's newly-recovered ability to disintegrate just about anything comes in handy here, in conjunction with Lúcio's usual method of compacting trash into heavy rocks-- most useful for anchoring more coral as it grows. 

Lúcio's in the midst of an exchange with a flotilla of sea turtles on their way to a Brazilian feeding ground when they turn as a unit and regard a shape drawing closer, slowly coming into view out of the clear depths. It drifts slowly, hesitantly closer, and Lúcio excuses himself from the conversation to take a closer look.

"Greetings," the approaching stranger says, all eight legs steadily churning the water. He idly toys with a small pearl, tied to a cord around his wrist. "Is this your reef?"

The only way Lucio can think to describe the newcomer, is 'cute'. He's about Lucio's size, lanky and powerful, a sleepy, good-natured expression on his face. "Yeah, it is!" He extends a fist to bump, a gesture happily returned. "I'm Lúcio."

Genji's enormous bulk appears in the corner of Lúcio's vision and speeds toward them, powerful thrashes of his tail bringing him closer with every second. His new guest's expression brightens when he catches sight of the dragon, and he turns to regard Lúcio when Genji finally reaches them. "Excuse my intrusion," he says, "but I believe that my friend is staying with you."

Lúcio laughs, watching Genji circle impatiently, waiting for a chance to cut in. "You mean Genji?"

"I do!"

"Zenyatta!" Genji finally pipes up, sweeping the other guardian into the coils of his tail, "Are you all right? I felt you coming." 

Zenyatta regards the dragon fondly, placing his hands on his shoulders. "I am very glad to see you, Genji. Are you well?"

An enthusiastic nod. "Yes, thanks to you and Lúcio."

Finally, Zenyatta sags against him, exhausted from his journey. He sighs when Genji wraps his arms around and squeezes him close, the dragon rubbing his scarred cheek against the bare skin of Zenyatta's temple. "That is a relief."

The tone of his voice gives Genji pause, and he pulls back just far enough to tip his face up, to pick up the dark circles under his eyes and the tired droop of his shoulders. Genji's voice takes on a tone that Lúcio's never heard before, a softness to it that's uncharacteristic of the usual deliberate power underneath each word. "What's wrong?"

Zenyatta takes a shaky breath, steadying himself. He looks at Lúcio, then Genji, his expression carefully neutral. "My brother," he says at last, "is dead."


	3. Chapter 3

"My reef still lives," Zenyatta explains, pulling Genji back from the full-blown frenzy he seems to be gathering the strength for, "but a chemical freighter collided with a rock formation off the coast. The spill killed all the fish, and my brother with them."

Genji stares straight ahead, helpless, before he finally pulls away from Zenyatta, hands on his shoulders to move him far enough back to see his face. "How long ago?" he asks, voice low.

"A week," Zenyatta says. "The mangroves will not last."

Zenyatta is an ancient guardian, that much is clear-- not as powerful as Genji but several times older than Lúcio. His bearing is calm, almost serene even in the face of a tragedy that would leave anyone devastated for much, much longer than a week, if they even survived it. His movements are slow and weak, livid rashes on his skin.

Tail curling more firmly around Zenyatta, almost as if to hold him in place, Genji frowns. "There must be something I can do."

"It is not something I would ask of you," Zenyatta quickly demurs, "but I thought that I might say goodbye." His shoulders droop, brows furrowing in agitation. "When, if, I return, it will not be as the Zenyatta you know."

A long silence, as the gears visibly turn in Genji's head. Lúcio doesn't know what had transpired between them, but given Genji's initial reluctance to even have a conversation when /he'd\ first arrived, to see him so communicative with someone else is plenty of reason for Lúcio to be curious.

"No," Genji says at last. A ripple of power from his core sends a particularly strong current Hana's way as she approaches, sending her stumbling several meters backwards along the sand while Lúcio rights himself in the water. "I won't allow you to die," Genji declares, all the confidence of an ocean deity behind his words, "not after what you did for me."

Zenyatta catches the tip of Genji's tail with a free tentacle, tugging lightly until he registers the pressure and releases him. "Guardians fade quite frequently," Zenyatta says, tone soft, "and I am not afraid."

"I can't save every guardian in the ocean, but I will find a way to help you." Genji's eyes drop to the pearl secured to Zenyatta's wrist, eyes widening slightly. "I only need another week--"

"I," Zenyatta interrupts, "do not have another week, Genji."

The clouded, hopeless expression on Genji's face hasn't made an appearance in a while but it's back with a vengeance now, somehow even more despondent than when it was his own condition at risk. The usual calm, even-tempered energy that surrounds him roils with discord, scattering the fish from their immediate area. He keeps his tail loosely wrapped around Zenyatta, the latter seeming content to just rest in Genji's presence as Hana pulls Lúcio away.

Lúcio privately suspects that Zenyatta could be one of those rare guardians who have lived through several cycles of death and rebirth as their ecosystems were destroyed and remade, who are capable of retaining memories from a previous lifetime. Still, the nature of an ecosystem changes even as it's reborn, and more than anything, Genji's distress seems to stem not from the possibility of _Zenyatta's death_ but from the thought of _an ocean without Zenyatta._

"Sorry to cut in," Lúcio says at last, pulling away from his hushed conversation with Hana, "but I think me and Hana can help."

He meets the shocked, grateful look Genji turns on him with a grin, then faces Hana, prompting her to elaborate-- it had, after all, been her idea. "Yeah," she says, "this place is pretty big! If you bind yourself to Lúcio, we can all work together?" Motioning behind her toward the main part of the reef, she adds, "This can be your lagoon, too. Besides, he's a lot stronger than he looks."

Lúcio drifts closer, circling Zenyatta with a leisurely, relaxed air. "You don't have to stay forever if you don't want to," he says firmly. "Genji might be able to figure something out, but you have to live long enough for him to do it. Besides, the more the merrier, right?"

Zenyatta looks significantly more thoughtful, taking a moment to digest the offer. He glances at the chemical burns on his own skin, Genji's patchwork of augmentations. Hana crosses her arms, staring up at him with an open, curious expression on her face; Lúcio hangs back, leaving enough distance to be respectful but close enough to appear absolutely comfortable around him. 

Finally, Zenyatta nods. "I understand," he says, an implicit agreement. "Thank you."

Genji watches Hana pull Zenyatta away, then turns back with a crooked smile. "I'm in your debt again, Lúcio." He drifts to eye-level with the smaller guardian and clasps his upper arm. "I promise that you will not regret this."

"No worries," Lúcio shoots back, reaching forward. Genji's eyes don't leave his face, even to follow the hand that gently ruffles his hair. "You know," Lúcio murmurs, "I get the feeling you'd do the same for us."

* * *

Genji's tactile, affectionate demeanor, usually hidden deep under a layer of polite reserve, is on full display in Zenyatta's presence. He stays close, frequently inspecting the other guardian's injuries with a perturbed, unhappy look on his face; Zenyatta tolerates the attention with a placid sort of resignation, often smiling reassuringly at Genji when his concern becomes overbearing. Lúcio watches Zenyatta carefully, taking note of the calm aura around him, each deliberate motion of his limbs.

"How'd you two meet?" Lúcio asks during a lull in their conversation as they draw closer to the lagoon. He's keeping pace easily with Genji, who has both Zenyatta and Hana clinging to him. The dragon can usually outswim him with little trouble, but seems just as happy to take his time now, careful not to jostle his passengers.

Genji takes a long moment to answer, but he's encouraged by a single small nod from Zenyatta. "I drifted into the Indian Ocean after my brother and I fought," he says after putting his thoughts in order. His memory of events is, admittedly, somewhat unclear, but the basic details are hard to mistake. "It was Zenyatta and Mondatta who found and stabilized me, and gave me the strength to make it here."

"There was little else we could do for Genji as he was," Zenyatta adds, "but we had heard of a human doctor in this ocean who could help him." Patting his tail, Zenyatta says, "I am very glad he is alive and well now."

"But," Genji asks, looking over his shoulder, "how did you find this place?"

Zenyatta considers his answer carefully, and he smiles at the larger guardian as they draw closer to Lúcio's lagoon. "I could feel your power resonate through this pearl," he explains, gently rolling the jewel at his wrist between his fingers, "and followed it until I arrived here. We did not have much time together, but it was all I could think of, after our reef was destroyed."

Genji continues in silence for a while, until he ducks under an arch and back into the calmer waters of Lúcio's lagoon. He follows Lúcio to the crevasse at his reef's center, and gently sets Hana down on the sandy floor beside it. Curling back on himself to speak face-to-face with Zenyatta, Genji catches his wrist and indicates the pearl with a quick tilt of his head. "Can I have this back?" he asks. "I will return it soon."

Removing it promptly from its cord, Zenyatta hands it over.

Genji pops it into his mouth, rolling it around one fang before he swallows it. Without any further indication of what he intends to do, he joins Lúcio at the sea floor, sweeping Zenyatta along in the vortex of water as he descends. Finally, he draws up to Lúcio, assisting him with the removal of the last of several large rocks that had fallen into and blocked the entrance of the crevice. "Ready?" 

"All good here," Lúcio answers.

"I am ready as well."

"If you want to come along for emotional support," Lúcio comments to Genji, noting the agitated set of his ears, "feel free."

Genji follows them into the trench without another word, his eyes adjusting easily to the darkness even as nine bioluminescent circles begin to glow from Zenyatta's forehead. As they near the bottom of the canyon, the narrow passage widens into a chamber replete with clear underwater stalagmites, jagged structures surrounding the molten core of Lúcio's reef. The water is warm and clear, dense with traces of minerals from the earth's mantle. 

Lúcio situates himself at the edge of the vent, his form wavy behind a column of superheated water rising from it, light from a lazy sliver of magma throwing his face into sharp relief. Zenyatta silently joins him, and Genji hangs back as Lúcio's eyes begin to glow. 

Thick, straight black lines appear on his skin, down his arms and his sides, and the stripes on his tail darken. His spines, usually pressed flush to his scales, halo out around him. 

Beside him, Zenyatta's suffused in a soft golden glow, translucent arms materializing behind his back and eight orbs appearing around his neck. He holds for a few seconds before the light begins to fade, dark lines mirroring Lúcio's appearing on his skin, thick stripes darkening his tail, his tentacles. 

Lúcio's aura takes on a gold tinge as it recedes, both him and Zenyatta momentarily breathless as they come to grips with the new abilities available to them. The lines on Zenyatta's skin seem to sink deeper into his body before they disappear entirely, and Lúcio sweeps his locs back as his own colors return to normal. 

Genji waits for both smaller guardians to approach him before he extends his arms for them to grab, dutifully ferrying them back to the lagoon's main body. At the entrance, Hana welcomes Zenyatta 'to the family' with an exuberant hug. In the light, Genji carefully examines him, marveling aloud at how quickly his wounds had healed.

"I think," Lúcio suggests after a few seconds more of Genji's fussing, "we could all use some rest right now. I'll show you around in the morning?"

Zenyatta beams at him. "That," he says, "sounds wonderful."

* * *

In his own area, Genji bundles Zenyatta into the coils of his tail, regarding him with an affectionate, appraising eye. He sidles close enough to brush shoulders but not so much as to crowd. "Are you all right?" Genji asks, bracing his hands on his tail and leaning forward, head cocked to try and catch the other guardian's eye.

"I am much better now."

"Hmm."

"I miss my brother greatly," Zenyatta concedes at the skeptical look on the dragon's face. He turns to Genji with a small, sad smile, and elaborates slowly. "We have never faded apart from one another, but we may yet meet again."

It takes Genji several seconds to consider his answer, his thoughts dragging him back to his last interaction with Hanzo, to the possibility of never returning home. It may be too much to hope for his prideful brother to regret his actions anytime soon, but he reaches over and squeezes Zenyatta's shoulder. "I hope you do."

"Genji," Zenyatta says after a beat of their comfortable, contemplative silence, "do you know why I thought to find you?"

"No," answers Genji as he lets go, fervently sincere, "but I'm glad you did."

That gets a chuckle, Zenyatta settling deeper into the nest of Genji's tail, leaning back to watch Genji's expression, the contented, metronomic sweep of his tail. So different from the frightened, hurting mass of sea serpent that had first washed into his reef. "It was because even in the state that you were," he explains, hand dropping to brush against the edge of an augmentation where it meets Genji's scales, "you tried to help me. I wanted to know that you had survived, and recovered."

Genji turns away, the temperature of the water around him ticking up several degrees even as he tries to escape Zenyatta's careful observation. What Zenyatta can see of his face is humbled, almost abashed. "I was simply trying to return a favor," he mumbles, making a show of settling in to sleep. "And, it didn't work anyway."

Zenyatta simply pats his tail and closes his eyes.

* * *

"I hate how easy he makes this look," Lúcio laughingly comments to Hana, watching as Genji zips around the lagoon, a slipstream of debris caught in his wake. Zenyatta, corralling a school of parrotfish fry away from Genji's frenzy of productivity, waves when Lúcio catches his eye. 

Hana grins, indicating with a sweep of her arm the absolutely meticulous cleanup job Genji set out to do as he regains his strength, testing the limits of his power. "Makes things pretty easy for us, though."

Maintaining the reef, a never-ending grind, had fallen briefly by the wayside when Genji arrived and dropped even lower in priority while Zenyatta settled in. Lúcio had taken pains to handle the most urgent issues as they cropped up, but now the untended everyday chores needed attention. Still, it's turned out to be _much_ easier with a guardian who controls the currents. 

Lúcio folds his arms across the top of Hana's shell and rests his chin on them. "Aw," he groans, "you just wanna be lazy."

"Of course I do! It's not my fault you need to be doing something _all the time_." Hana stands, scuttling across the sand with Lúcio in tow to deposit him into his sleeping grotto and body-block him into it. "Relax a little."

"Have you _seen_ how much there is to do around here?" Lúcio shoots back, half-heartedly trying to get around her. "I'm just a simple reef."

He gives up eventually, resigning himself to watching Genji and Zenyatta pick up the chores that had previously occupied most of his time. The energy he's spared from having to expend is significant, and could be easily turned to larger and more ambitious projects; Lúcio's distracted enough by the planning that he barely notices Genji approaching until the dragon's practically on top of Hana.

"There is a barge passing nearby," Genji gleefully tells them as he zooms by, peering over Hana's shell, "I'm going to dump all this trash onto it."

Lúcio can't sense any passing barge for several kilometers around, but he watches Genji disappear into the distance with the vortex of garbage behind him, the ability to disintegrate it all apparently forgotten. One small reef is laughably simple to clean compared to the entire Pacific Ocean and the oldest, most powerful guardians can hardly spend their time clearing every individual ecosystem with several thousand tons of trash circulating the gyres. Still, it stings to learn that for the most part, Lúcio and others like him were simply beneath their notice. 

The gyres are self-sustaining to a point, so Genji's lack of worry for his previous responsibilities makes sense for now-- in the meantime, Lúcio can't shake the feeling that the dragon is much more interested in shirking his duties than actually helping, as much as it benefited this particular lagoon for him to do so.

"Well," Hana quips, correctly reading the distant expression on his face, "it's not gonna hurt to enjoy this while he's here, right? Besides, Zeny's with us now!"

"Yeah," Lúcio sighs, "you're right. Genji knows better than we do when he's gotta worry about the rest of the ocean."

"I'm gonna go see if Zeny needs any help," Hana informs him as she turns to go, pointedly forming a small mound of sand as a blockade, "so you just rest, okay? We can handle things for a day."

Lúcio grins after her, eyeing the half-hearted barrier she'd thrown up just for him. For all her bluster, Hana's always been a considerate partner and a loyal friend; hundreds of years together and she still manages to surprise him with her perceptiveness; that clear, uncomplicated vision. 

He yawns, crosses his arms behind his head and nestles into the thick patch of kelp that serves as his bed. Hana and Zenyatta's conversation carries across the reef, unhindered by the water. In the last two weeks, Zenyatta's voice has become familiar, its cadence steady and smooth; a pleasant contrast to Hana's upbeat rhythm.

The frantic activity of this last month catches up to him as he closes his eyes, exhaustion settling deep into his bones. Zenyatta had taken on a share of the lagoon's work but he'd also tapped into a store of Lúcio's power, draining it as he slowly acclimated to a new ecosystem. 

Genji's return to the reef, and his polite inquiry about Lúcio's condition, only vaguely registers in his ears as he falls asleep.

* * *

The pearl that Zenyatta had arrived with appears back on his wrist several days later, along with a sudden dip in the drain of his reserves. _I believe,_ Zenyatta had said upon being questioned, _that it is simply a conduit for Genji's energy, made available to me to take the strain off yourself._

Lúcio can't deny its effectiveness, and Genji doesn't seem to be affected much by the added toll on his vast reservoir of energy. Still, the day Genji approaches him with a nervous, preoccupied look on his face, Lúcio braces for _some_ kind of bad news.

Instead, he's presented with a brilliant, perfectly round pearl the size of a small marble. Genji flashes him a smile, rolling the jewel around in his palm as he waits for a reaction. It's large, something that would take a proper oyster decades to properly make.

"Whoa," Lúcio breathes, unable to look away, "that's pretty nice."

"I want you to have it," Genji says, cutting off Lucio's expression of shock with a gesture to wait and hear him out first. He holds steady in the water, but the agitated sweep of his tail is a dead giveaway as to the state of his nerves. "It's a beacon to other guardians that you've done a great deal for me, and it will protect you if I'm not here."

He allows himself to be charmed by the sentiment, but mulling that over, Lúcio flares his spines. "I'm not," he says, indicating them with a tilt of his head, "defenseless."

"It would be a favor to me," Genji counters, "to set my mind at ease. Now that you've encountered me, more trouble may come to you." The serious, unhappy set of his mouth stands in stark contrast to the joking lilt of his voice, but Lucio can hear the bitterness in it. "It seems to follow me around."

Narrowing his eyes, Lúcio takes the pearl and holds it up to the light. He slowly comes to the realization that Genji might be more affected by what happened to Zenyatta than he'd let on; guilty and uneasy despite having had absolutely nothing to do with the wreck that had killed Mondatta. "What do I do with it?"

"Have it with you," Genji replies, trying to sound nonchalant, "and hope you never have to use it."

"That's all?"

"Yes."

It's a subdued, distant power-- hot enough to burn and sharp enough to cut if left unchecked-- contained in the pearl but Lúcio can feel it respond to his own aura, surging and retreating in slow waves as he calls on it. Genji doesn't seem to register the contact, having detached the jewel from himself entirely. Lúcio closes his fingers around it, clasping it tight in his fist. "I feel like this isn't something you just give away, Genji."

He gets a nod, Genji's candor both refreshing and somewhat alarming; he's rarely so direct. "The circumstances are quite unique, in your case."

"Hana's gonna be jealous she didn't get one," Lúcio muses, though if she were in danger, he wouldn't hesitate to use the pearl to help her. Still, they all know that he's the more likely to get himself in trouble.

Genji snorts, shaking his head. "I was preparing one for her as well," he explains, a wry smile on his face, "but she said that she definitely doesn't want something I had to vomit up."

That startles a laugh out of Lúcio, who looks down again at the pearl in his hand and drifts closer to Genji to put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "For what it's worth," he says, "you have beautiful vomit."

"It would look good on you," Genji offers, his voice hitching as he tries not to laugh along, "even though it's vomit."

"Okay," Lúcio says, grinning wide, "I'll take your vomit." Then, more seriously: "Only if you're sure about this, Genji."

"I am. Thank you."

"Thank _you_." Lúcio pulls him in, both arms wrapping around Genji's neck. He's almost expecting to be pushed away, and startles when Genji returns the hug instead, arms tight around his shoulders. "You're right," Lúcio whispers into his ear, brow quirking at the full-body shiver that elicits, "this would look _amazing_ on me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> might edit more later, but thas about the gist of it

**Author's Note:**

> lucio is a lionfish (tho he usually keeps his spikes down), hana is a hermit crab, and zenyatta is an octopus (specifically, the [adorabilis](http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/d-brief/2015/06/16/adorable-octopus-name/))!


End file.
